Improvement in devices for opening and closing furnace-doors



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-, Device forflpenihg and Closing Furnace-Doors.

N0. 159,190. Patented Jan. 26,1875.,

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. Device for Opening and Closing Furname-floorfg;75

' Patentedlan.26, No.l59,l9 0.

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P rri UNITED (STATES PA'IENT OFFICE.

GEORGE LEES, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN DEVICES FOR OPENING AND CLOSING FURNACE-DOORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 159,190, dated January 26, 1875; application filed December 5, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE LEES, of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Opening and Closing Locomotive-Furnace Doors and do hereby declare the following to be a full,

. clear, and exact description of the invention,

such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being had to the accompanying draw- I ings, which form part of this specification, in

the fireman to lay down his shovel in order to open the door with his hand, he has merely to place his foot upon a treadle conveniently arranged for that purpose. The furnace-door at once fully opens, and remains in that position until the fireman again puts his foot upon the treadle, when the door promptly closes and latches.

In the accompanying drawing illustrating my invention, A represents the front of a locomotive-furnace; B, the foot-board; and U, the door, having a latch, D. E E are hinges, made fast to a pintle-post, F, turning in bearings f f, and terminating in a fiat end, F, twisted'to form a screw or spiral, as shown. G is a lever, fulcrumed at g, and having a slot, 9 through which the screw F passes. By moving the lever G up and down upon its pivot the pintlepost F will be rotated, and the furnace-door 0 be alternately opened and closed. To move the lever, I provide the following arrangement of devices: H is an arm, turning upon a shaft, h, having a weight, h and a treadle, 7L2. I and K are two arms, moving also independently upon the shaft h. These arms are, respectively, secured to sleeves i and it, from which proceed other short arms, 1' and It. When the arm I is depressed the arm 5 will be raised, the arms K and 70 operating in like manner. When the arm H is made to engage with the arm I the furnace-do0r will be opened. When, on the contrary, it engages with the arm K said door will be closed.v To effect such engagement, I provide a pawl or tripper, L, which is pivoted on the treadle W, and which is formed with shoulders l Z Whichever one of the arms I or K is the most elevated, with that the tripper L will engage. When the furnacedoor is closed, the arm I is highest; when opened, the arm K. As soon as the tripper engages with one of the arms I or K its opposite shoulder will move clear of the other arm. M is a pivoted dog engaging with the latch D, and d is an arm made fast to the pintle-post F. When the post F begins to rotate on the elevation of the lever G the arm (I strikes the tail-piece m of the dog M, causing the lip m to depress the short arm of the latch and raise the other end d out of the notch n or a in the staple N.

The operation of the foregoing devices is as follows: The fireman places his foot on the treadle k thereby depressing the arm H. .The tripper-shoulder Z thereupon engages with the arm I, depressing the same, raising the arm '6 and moving the lever G up on the screw F, turning the pintle-post F, and opening the furnace-door. Simultaneously therewith the end g of the lever Gr depresses the arm k, and raises the arm K. The fireman Withdrawing his foot from the treadle W, the weight 7L1 causes said treadle to rise until the tripper L comes above the arm K. When the treadle h is again depressed the shoulder Z will engage with the arm K, depressing it, raising the end 9 of the lever G, causing the other end to move down upon the screw F of the pintle-post, rotating the same, and closing the furnace-door. As the arm K goes down, the arm I ascends, resumin g its normal position; and as soon as the firemans foot is Withdrawn from the treadle after closing the furnace-door, the arm H and treadle 7L2 come up in like manner.

To prevent the occurrence of a dead-lock, which would transpire unless provision were made against it, when the arms I and K come in the same horizontal plane, I form said arm I with a projection, 45. Now, the tripper-shoulder 1 will ordinarily engage with shoulder i but should the two arms I and K get in the same horizontal plane, as they may do if the furnace-door be only partially opened, said tripper-shoulder will engage with the shoulder i, depressing the arm I and the door.

A modification of my invention is shown in Fig. 3, wherein I have substituted for the arms I and K pawls O and P. These pawls are pivoted on a frame, Q, consisting of the crosspiece q and arms g 9 the said arm g being extended to form a treadle, R, and said frame Q swinging on the shaft 19. S is a weighted T- tripper, whose arms 8 8 rest upon tail-pieces of the pawls 0 and P.

The operation of the modification is substantially the same as that of the principal, and is as follows: The furnace-door being closed, the treadle R is depressed, elevating the frame Q until the pawl O meets and raises the lever G, opening the furnace-door, as already described. The door being opened, the fireman raises his foot from the treadle, when the frame Q resumes its normal position, the pawls O and P being restored to the same plane by the gravity of the tripper S. When the treadle is again depressed the pawl P will move the lever G in the contrary direction, closing the furnace door, the frame Q, and treadle R, and pawls O and P coming back to their original position.

I have thus described instrumentalities for opening and closing a locomotive-furnace door by means of the firemans foot; but should the fireman in any case disdain the use of these, the door may be opened and closed in the ordinary manner by hand.

In order to cause the door to remain fully opened when brought into that positionthat is to say, at right angles to the front of the furnace-the pintle-post F above the screw or twist F or at f is made perfectly fiat and straight for a short distance. The effect of this is to cause the slot in the lever G to operate as a look upon such pintle-post, preventing it from being turned by the jarring motion of the engine. In order therefore to close the door the lever Gr must be brought down until the slot 9 begins to move on the twisted or screw portion F of the pintle-post before a rotation of the latter can be effected. By making the pintle-post fiat and straight in like manner below the twisted portion, the furnace-door will be similarly locked when closed.

What I claim as my invention is 1. The combination of the furnace-door O, latch D, pintle post F, having the screw or twist F, lever Gr, arm d, and dog m, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination, with lever G, of the arms H, I, and K, and treadle 7L constructed and operating in conjunction with the tripper L and arms 13 and is, substantially as shown and described.

3. The pintle-post F, having a twist or screw, F, and a flattened part, f or f, for preventing the accidental rotation of said post when the furnace-door is opened or closed, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand.

GEORGE LEES. Witnesses:

ABRAHAM S'roTT, JNo. A. BELL. 

